Jan. 8, 2011
AUBURN - Auburn nearly came back from a 31 point second half deficit in losing to LSU 62-55 in the SEC opener for both teams in Auburn Arena on Saturday. Earnest Ross had 21 points and Kenny Gabriel 17 points for Auburn.
Auburn (7-8, 0-1) scored the first basket in the first minute of the game but wouldn't score again for 10:13 with a Gabriel free throw as Auburn was down 15-3 with 9:08 left in the first. Auburn only shot 2-of-24 (.083) from the field in the opening period, scoring its only other points on a Gabriel 3-pointer with 5:56 before halftime, and the Tigers trailing 22-6.
"We missed 23 layups tonight," said Auburn head coach Tony Barbee. "You're not beating anybody when you get the ball five feet within the rim and miss 23 layups. A lot of that was us and a lot of that was LSU because they challenged the rim.
"I told the guys that I was proud of them for the comeback, but really it was irrelevant. When you dig yourself that big of a hole, you are going to expend so much energy trying to come back that it is going to be hard to get over the hump, and that is what happened to us."
LSU (8-7, 1-0) led 32-6 at the half and scored the first five points of the second half to go up 37-6, but that's when Auburn turned it around. Auburn outscored LSU 49-25 the rest of the way and cut the lead to six.
Trailing by 31, Auburn scored 18 straight points in a span of 4:34 to quickly cut the LSU lead to 37-24 with 13:16 remaining. LSU went back up by 20 points, but Auburn used another frenetic 14-2 run to close to within 50-42 with 5:19 to go on an Earnest Ross put-back as the boisterous crowd of 6,873 was in a frenzy.
"Mentally, it hurt us a lot," said Ross after having such a large halftime deficit. "This was the first SEC game for a lot of guys being put into a situation like that. It really hurt us. Coach kept telling us that we have to fight back, and we can't let this effect how we play. We can't do this in front of our home crowd. We have to come back in the second half."
Tony Neysmith made a steal, but missed a layup that would have cut the LSU lead to six with five minutes left. Ross, who went 5-of-12 from 3-point range in the second half, made his final trey with 21 seconds left to bring Auburn to within 61-55.
"As a team, we have to come out with fire like we did in the beginning of the second half, at the beginning of the game, so you won't have a big deficit like that," said Gabriel. "We have to come out stronger like we do to start the second half every game."
Auburn's season-best four game winning streak with Frankie Sullivan as a starter ended as Sullivan did not play.
"Obviously not making any excuses, but you have seen the effect that he has on our team in those categories of toughness and intensity. It is contagious. That is what he brings to our team. After the Florida State game, his leg has been really bothering him. You can see his production has gone down through the four games he has been back. It was way down against Florida State because his knee was swollen.
"He has a lot of pain in that knee. He tried to warm it up tonight, but he just couldn't tolerate it. It takes a guy off the floor that really knows how to play. Not that he was averaging 30 poitns a game or anything, but his leadership brought a lot to our team. When you take that off our team, you see what happens to us."
LSU outshot Auburn 42.9 percent to 31.1 percent, but Auburn went 8-of-24 from 3-point range while LSU was 5-of-19 (.263). LSU, which outrebounded Auburn 26-14 in the first half, ended up only outrebounding Auburn 41-35. Auburn forced 18 LSU turnovers while it only had 14.
Auburn begins a two game road trip as it plays at No. 10 Kentucky on Tuesday at 6 pm Central in Rupp Arena on ESPNU followed by a game at Mississippi State on Sunday at 1 pm Central in Humphrey Coliseum. The game will be televised by FSN.